


Geography

by anr



Category: MASH (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-08-13
Updated: 2004-08-13
Packaged: 2017-11-04 11:18:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 481
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/393229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anr/pseuds/anr
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"If you're lucky, I'll throw in a free set of steak knives."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Geography

"Illinois."

"Samch'ok."

Margaret Houlihan thinks the war is quiet tonight. Too quiet, if she's honest with herself, but to say as much out loud would be hackneyed and she abhors cliches.

"Kentucky."

"Yongdok."

Margaret Houlihan thinks, most days, that she's been here too long. That this three year war feels like eleven and that if she ever gets out of this alive (or sane, and she's not ashamed to admit she has trouble distinguishing between the two sometimes) she'll have regrets too numerous to count.

"Kansas."

"Sinurju."

Margaret Houlihan thinks that playing Geography (United States versus Korea) while reading a medical journal (old and dated, even by their standards, with half the procedures they're discussing already part of her repertoire and she's only a nurse) and drinking twelve year old scotch (a gift from a grateful two-star general) is probably not the most militarily efficient use of her time. It is, however, something she's quite content to keep doing.

"Utah."

"Hyesanjin."

Margaret Houlihan thinks that Pierce is cheating at his crossword puzzle, that Zale is not polishing the glasses so much as letting them air-dry, that Kelly and Baker should be writing up charts instead of playing cards, and that Father Mulcahy should shuffle his piano scores better and choose another song. She also thinks she wouldn't have these people any other way.

"New Mexico."

Margaret Houlihan thinks, _Ouijongbou_ , but does not answer straight away. After a moment or two of silence (too quiet) he looks up at her.

"Forfeiting already?"

"No."

"Then..."

"Shut up, I'm thinking." She tries not to make it sound like an order and fails, miserably, because orders are what she's best at.

Not that he's ever followed one of them. "Clock's ticking..."

"No, it's not."

"Well answer anyway and, if you're lucky, I'll throw in a free set of steak knives."

"You're never going to get lucky with me."

He grins and Margaret Houlihan thinks she will not add 'again' to that statement, no matter how much he looks like he wants her to. Instead, she looks around the Officers Club; looks at him, sitting beside her, puzzling out a mimeographed crossword that's six months old as he plays Geography with her because this is what they do, one night out of twelve, when the war is quiet and their paperwork's up to date. When she's not all military and he's not so drunk and it's just too damn lonely and stupid for them to pretend they're just colleagues when history says they're not.

Margaret Houlihan thinks this means something and she thinks tonight she's not going to be too afraid to say so and that that will be one less regret to worry about at war's end.

"New Mexico," he repeats.

And she answers, "home," and does not pretend to miss the flash of understanding in his eyes.

Their's is an atypical relationship.

  


* * *

The End

**Author's Note:**

> ORIGINAL URL: <http://anr.livejournal.com/159907.html>


End file.
